Paternal Strife
by Griffinwalkermw
Summary: Based on a Fallout 4 mod where Nate survives being shot. This is a reworked version of that mod, to what I think is more realistic, given Nate's military background. Also his name isn't Nate in this story. If you know me, then you know what it is. Rated M for graphic content, and other reasons in future chapters.


**This is an idea I had, from one of the mods available to people playing Fallout 4 on Xbox, or Playstation. Rather than copy it word for word, beat for beat however, I elected to put my own spin on the mod, as well as many other parts of 4's story in general, as to not make it seem like a copy-and-paste. This includes the names of both Survivors. I hope you enjoy it.**

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Defrosted and Bleeding

In the deepest chamber of Vault 111, a vault that has been desolate for the better part of 200 years, a pod on the right side of the chamber has at long last lost its power. Only this pod and the one directly across from it were still in working condition, but neither would last for much longer. Especially this one, as a robotic voice blares over the intercom. "WARNING: POD CONTAINING SUBJECT: WALKER, GRIFFIN, HAS BEEN COMPROMISED." Right on cue, that exact pod's door slowly moves forward, and rises up through the sky, as Griffin Walker's unconscious, cryo-covered body slowly twitches back to life. Then it becomes a much more sudden thing, as his arms violently shake off the cryo ice, and he snaps back to consciousness with a sudden gasp, and his eyes shooting open. As he struggles to catch his breath, he shakes the ice off of his legs, and then falls out of the chamber, landing on his knees.

A memory then flashes before his mind, as he can hear a gunshot in his head, and that's when he feels a bullet lodged in his shoulder. However much time he had spent in the chamber before being shot, had hardened his skin enough to keep the bullet from going all the way through. He wasn't able to think about anything else, his instincts from his time in the army against China kicking in, as he immediately spotted a medkit. The continued time in the cryo-chamber had already numbed and cleaned the wound to a degree, but Griffin was thankful that he found dressing in it, to go along with a scalpel to cut the skin back further if needed, the tweezers to pull at the bullet, and a stimpak as a last resort. Surprisingly enough, he even found a working flip-lighter to heat up the tweezers. Getting to work right away, Griffin first uses the scalpel to cut at the Vault-tec suit he's wearing, and peel it back enough to pick at his wound with the tweezers.

As he picks at the bullet, Griffin swears under his breathe as he realizes that the skin is too grafted onto the bullet, and he has to slice a bit at the wound, clenching his teeth as he does. Once he feels he's done enough, he uses the flip-lighter to heat up the tweezers. Slowly and carefully he moves the tweezers up to the wound, positioning one end onto the edge of the bullet, and then slowly turns the other end to rest against the other side, as the heat from the metal is surprisingly enough to nearly kill the extreme numbness from the cryo chamber. Griffin then takes a deep breathe in, as he gets a hold of the bullet with the tweezers, and slowly begins to pull it out without any air escaping from his lungs.

And then came the most unpleasant part of the self-imposed procedure. As the bloodied bullet finally popped out of the entry wound, Griffin dropped the tweezers to the ground, and reached over to grab the dressing. Having to rip the top off with his teeth with only having full use of one arm, Griffin steadily moves the dressing above his shoulder, and steadily sprinkles more and more into the wound, unable to hide the pain as he does so. Feeling that he has dressed it enough, Griffin performs the final step, as he takes the flip-lighter, and sparks a fire, slowly moving it to the wound. As it touches the dressing and cauterizes the wound, Griffin can finally no longer take it any more. "AAAAHHH FUCK!" He screams out. In an effort to ease his pain, Griffin fights to his feet, and grabs the stimpak, injecting it into his neck as the serum spreads throughout his body, and finally gives him a chance to relax. As his breathing finally slows to a steady pace, his memories flood back to him.

In Griffin's head, he can hear voices. The first of which is his own, as he first hears himself coughing. _"Is it over?"_ He asks, as he finishes coughing. _"Are we okay?"_

_"Almost."_ A deep voice of another man he hears now. _"Everything's going to be fine."_

Suddenly he hears an infant crying, and then hears the sound of a female voice speaking to him. _"Come here... Come here, baby."_

_"No, wait. No, I've got him."_ Griffin's own voice responds in protest.

Now the voice of the other man can be heard speaking with malice. _"Let the boy go. I'm only gonna tell you once."_

_"I'm not giving you Shaun!"_ Griffin yells out furiously, and then there once again the sound of a gun shot going through his head, as the voices fade away. Right as they do, it all sinks in. "They took my son." Griffin whispers under his breathe.

Right as he rises back to his feet, and wraps up the cauterized wound in bandages, one more memory returns to him. In his head he sees the mental image of himself getting set in the pod, with his son Shaun carried in his arms. As the pod door closes, he looks out the window, and into the pod directly across from his. As he sees his wife, he reaches out and places his hand on the window, reaching out for her. As she returns the gesture, shortly thereafter, his vision fades away, as the pod's cryo function freezes him solid.

As his eyes dart to the other side of the room, that's when it all hits him. "Madison" He exclaims, as he remembers his wife still frozen solid, the ice littered across her face and her hair. With the stimpak restoring his strength, Griffin bolts over to the pod, and can see his wife's face frozen inside. He searches the machine up and down, trying to find something to open the damn thing up. "Where's the release? Where's the release!" He frantically asks himself, before finally finding a handle on the console directly next to the pod. This handle unfortunately does no good, as the thing might as well be bolted down onto the console; it won't budge. He growls at the thing as he continues to try and jolt it up. "Fuck you! Open up!" His efforts are in vain, and he finally has to give up, feeling his muscles tensing especially around the wound. Having almost completely burnt out his muslces, he slams the edge of his fist onto the console.

He has to step back and breathe to calm himself down, as he can feel a burning sensation at the bullet wound begin to form. "Power Armor." He states to himself. During his time in the military, he once war a suit of Power Armor in a combat situation. If it was at all possible, then Griffin had to return to the Vault inside of a suit. Surely that extra strength would force the lever up, regardless of how aged and rusted it may be. But the only problem stemmed from the fact that he had no idea what kind of world he'd be entering once he left the vault. Power Armor may be an extremely hard thing to find.

However, there was little choice in the matter. The only thing that he could do if he stayed in the vault was starve to death. As much as it pained him, Griffin knew he had to leave the vault. But even as he made the walk down the hallway if felt like he had only first entered yesterday, he walked backwards as he couldn't take his eyes off of his wife's pod. "I'll get you out of there." He whisered to himself. "And when I do, I'll hopefully do it with Shaun." As the big blast door behind him opens up, he turns around and begins to navigate his way through Vault 111.

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**Doing three stories at a time? What the hell is wrong with me? Anyway, there's a high possibility that this story will be updated at a slower pace than my other two. If you happen to already be invested, I apologize.**


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